


Sweet Tart

by crazydiamondsue



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Banter, Character Study, F/F, Femslash, Rare Pairings, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-30
Updated: 2010-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-06 20:25:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazydiamondsue/pseuds/crazydiamondsue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post AtS "Orpheus", just prior to BtVS "Dirty Girls." Willow and Faith share a car ride and find common ground.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweet Tart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [likeadeuce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeadeuce/gifts).



Willow tightened her hands on the steering wheel and then checked the rearview and side mirrors again. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Faith shift in her seat and glanced over at her. She watched as Faith stretched, her already too short top slowly rising up over her ribs until it stopped at the bottom edge of a frayed and faded black bra.

Faith yawned a jaw-popping yawn and turned her head, catching Willow’s stare. Willow quickly averted her eyes, looking at the rearview mirror again.

Frowning, Faith looked out the back window. “You think someone’s following us?”

“What?” Willow said with a guilty jerk as she accidentally hit the turn signal. The clicking sounded unusually loud in the quiet car until she quickly turned it off again, blushing. “Uh, no, it’s that I, uh, don’t drive very fast and sometimes there’s another car behind me before I realize it and then there’s bright lights and honking and, you know, hand gestures that just really aren’t called for…”

Faith chuckled. “Yeah, kind of figured that when you drove three miles out of our way to avoid having to make a left hand turn.” She shrugged, lifting her hand to draw lazy designs on the car window. “Fine by me, I don’t need to get to Sunnydale any faster than we have to.”

Willow watched as Faith’s grin faded and her mouth tightened as she stared out the darkened window. She snuck another quick look at the rearview mirror before turning her eyes back to the empty highway. She watched the trees brighten ghostly as the headlights hit them and then slowly darken as the car moved past.

She listened to the sound of her breathing, a little sharp and nervous, and the sound of Faith’s, slow and a little raspy. She swallowed, hearing every sound as her dry tongue unstuck itself from the roof of her mouth. Taking a deep breath, she glanced over at Faith again.

“So…you, ah, want me to go over the thing with The First again? ‘Cause trust me,” she said, frowning, “it didn’t make sense to me the first few times, either. I could give you a run down of the players, ‘cause a lot’s changed since the last time…”

Faith shook her head slowly, “Nah, that’s okay. It’s Sunnydale, right? Some things you just have to see for yourself.”

Willow nodded. “Right. Anyway, Buffy’d probably be better at explaining some of the stuff.”

“Buffy,” Faith said, as she closed her eyes and her head dropped back against the cushion. “That’ll be a reunion.” She raised her head, looking at Willow with a frown. “Think she’ll wanna hug?”

Willow smiled slightly, shrugging. Faith laughed softly and Willow went back to watching the dark highway. She cleared her throat and fidgeted, pulling at her seatbelt slightly. She looked over and saw that Faith wasn’t wearing hers, opened her mouth to remind her and then decided against it, sighing quietly.

Faith glanced at her. “Quiet gettin’ to ya, Red?”

“No, it’s…well, yeah, kinda,” Willow said, and then quickly started thinking of something to talk about. With Faith. Something she had in common with Faith. Realizing that worst of that short list was that they were both murderers and the best was that they had both made out with Xander, she considered just turning the turn signal back on the fill the silence.

“Could listen to the radio,” Faith suggested.

“Oh, I don’t usually,” Willow said, glancing down at the car stereo and realizing she didn’t even know what most of the buttons did. “Kind of makes it hard for me to concentrate on the…” Faith reached out, hitting the scan button and quickly flipping past stations. Willow smiled shakily, “Yeah, okay.”

Willow shifted in her seat again as Faith leaned closer to watch the station numbers flip past. Faith smelled a little like the antiseptic they must have used to clean the bites and scratches from her fight with Angelus. But the scent of her hair was a sharp, clean one, kind of like heather, and a little smoky.

Willow took a deep breath, breathing it in, and then Faith was leaning closer, her voice a little quiet, uncertain as she spoke.

“This okay?”

Willow licked her lips, nodding before she realized she meant to and then Faith was turning up the radio, falling back in her seat and singing lustily, “I closed my eyes and I slipped away…”

Willow quickly made another rearview check, flustered. “Yeah, this is good,” she said, her hands tightening on the steering wheel again. “Boston. Ooo! Like where you’re from.”

Faith lifted her eyebrows and nodded slowly and then looked back out the window, continuing to sing softly under her breath. Willow drove.

The song ended and a commercial came on. Faith turned the volume back down and sighed. “Gettin’ closer.”

Willow looked over at her. “That’s like a Slayer thing, huh? Feel the Hellmouth getting stronger the closer we get to it? You know, sometimes I think I can, too…” she trailed off as she realized Faith was staring at her.

“No,” Faith said, digging in her jacket pocket, “we just passed a sign. Sunnydale – 20 miles.” She pulled a pack of cigarettes out, snickering quietly.

“Oh,” Willow said, grimacing. “Must have missed it.”

“Uh-huh,” Faith said, lighting a cigarette. “Hey, I bet if you check the rearview again, you can see the back of it.” She rolled down the window and then looked at Willow, her lips twisting a bit. “This gonna bother you?”

It was, but Willow shrugged. “Not anymore than all that magic smoke I breathed in back at the hotel.”

“Magic smoke,” Faith said, taking a deep drag. “Now that’s something I haven’t had in a long time.”

“Well, you’ll get your fill of it around me,” Willow said, grinning, “’cause I’m all about the….oh, wait, you weren’t talking about magick magic.”

Faith laughed. “No.”

Willow nodded, wrinkling her nose as the smoke teased it. “So. You smoke now.”

Faith looked at the cigarette in her hand, and then back at Willow. “You just let me light up to give me the lecture, right?”

Willow rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “Yeah, like that’d do me any good. Everyone I know has super powers, not like a few carcinogens are gonna hurt them. And even if I said anything, they’d just be all, ‘Hellmouth’ll kill me before this does.’ But then, I don’t know anyone with superpowers who smokes. I mean, I could tell Xander, but Xander doesn’t smoke.”

Faith snorted, exhaling. “Nothin’ but pole.”

“What?” Willow said, swerving and then grabbing the steering wheel tighter and checking all available mirrors again before she looked back at Faith. “Xander…what? No, he doesn’t! That whole ‘gay me up’ thing was just a…oh, wait you weren’t even there, so…”

“Will,” Faith said, laughing. “Chill. Kidding, okay? Just a joke. Breakin’ the tension.”

“There’s tension?” Willow asked, her knuckles white on steering wheel. “I mean, yeah, back to Sunnydale tension, and that thing back at the Hyperion wasn’t exactly a pre-apocalypse sabbatical, but there’s no _tension_ tension…”

“You know, maybe talking isn’t something we should try,” Faith said, leaning back and propping a boot against the dashboard. “It’s not like I don’t know what you think about me,” she said, closing her eyes and drumming the hand that held the cigarette against her bent knee. “Even before stuff got bad with B.”

“That was a long time ago,” Willow said, staring out the windshield. “I mean, I’ve seen the darkness, too, you know, and yeah, you did some stuff that, okay, not good, but that was me reacting to the stuff. The way I felt about it was never really about _you_…”

Faith opened her eyes, staring at Willow. “So, wishing you could have an hour alone with me, if you were larger and had grenades, was just about my _stuff_, huh?”

Willow winced, looking at Faith out of the corner of her eye. “You weren’t ever supposed to hear that.”

“You said it to my _face_.” Faith shook her head. “Buffy’s face. Whatever.”

“You took everything,” Willow said suddenly. “I always knew, with Giles, I came second to Buffy, but then there was you – ‘what’s wrong with Faith? How can we reach out to Faith?’ and then you and Buffy with your super secret Slayers only club and then you had to take Xander, just because you could, because you were hotter than me…”

“You thought I was hot?” Faith said, grinning.

“That’s not the point,” Willow said, turning away. “Did you even hear the rest of what I said?”

“Yeah,” Faith said, sighing, “I fuck up everything, I take everything, I…”

“You know what?” Willow said suddenly. “Let’s not.” She looked over at Faith, holding her gaze for a second. “That stuff…it doesn’t matter. Really. You’re coming to Sunnydale because we need you, no questions asked.” She frowned. “Although, some you should ask,” she shook her head as Faith started to speak, “but that’s okay. You and me? We’re over it.”

Faith nodded, tossing her cigarette butt out the window and then quickly lighting another one. “So…still wanna talk?”

Willow giggled, rolling down her own window to clear out a little more of the smoke. “Sure. You sneer, I’ll babble. But we’ve already covered, ‘that which must not be spoken,’ so what else do we have?”

“I don’t know,” Faith said, “we could go back to that hot thing.”

Willow shook her head. “How do you do that? Go from ‘oh, I’m so tortured – everyone hates me’ to ‘hey, check me out, everyone wants me’?”

“Well,” Faith said, blowing a stream of smoke at her, “it’s like this: I’ve got issues.” Willow snorted and Faith grinned, “And my issue right now is – I wanna hear it. You thought I was hot. Say it.”

Willow rolled her eyes. “Yes, Faith,” she said, patiently. “We all thought you were hot. I thought you were hot, Giles thought you were hot, _Wesley_ thought you were hot, Xander proclaimed your hotness to the heavens. Hotter than Cordy, hotter than Buffy, _way_ hotter than me…”

“Oh, yeah, ‘cause that shy schoolgirl ‘I’m so innocent’ thing is _such_ a turn-off,” Faith said. “But you know what?” she asked, leaning over and lifting a strand of Willow’s hair and letting it glide through her fingers. “I kinda miss the pigtails.”

Willow rubbed her cheek against her shoulder, knocking Faith’s hand away. “Stop that.”

Faith fell back in her seat, grinning. “It’s good, yo,” she said, ignoring the way Willow rolled her eyes again at that. “You remember how it is after a good throw down. And I mean, double whammy, first with Angelus and then with Junior…smack around the pretty boys, mack on the pretty girls…” she smirked. “You know what I sayin’. Slayer’s burden, hungry and…”

“Oh!” Willow said, rummaging quickly through the console. “Here.” She held a small package out to Faith, keeping her eyes on the road.

Faith looked at the bright pink and green wrapper, frowning. “Sweet Tarts?”

“First rule of road trip,” Willow said, smiling, “bring a long a little sugar. Oh, I didn’t mean…never mind,” she said, shutting up.

Faith ripped open the package, grimacing. “Oh, ugh, they’re the chewy ones.” Shrugging, she tossed her cigarette away and bit into the candy. “Hmm. A little _too_ tart.”

“You’re telling me,” Willow grumbled.

“So now that it’s out there,” Faith said around a mouthful of sour pink sugar, “have to do something about it.”

“About what?” Willow asked, risking a look away from the road.

“That we’ve both owned up to finding each other hot,” Faith answered, licking her fingers. “You can’t just say something like that and leave it. Have to do something with it or just builds up and festers, all hot and frustrated. I think we both know what happens when people like you and me just let something build up without letting it out…”

“Yes,” Willow said slowly, “that’s why you acknowledge it intelligently and see it for what it is and move on. That’s classic Id/Ego dynamic. You should know – you’re the poster child.”

“College girl!” Faith exclaimed as she leaned in and slid a sugar sticky finger against Willow’s lips. “So tell me this, do Psych majors ever do more than _mind_ fuck?”

“I’m seeing someone,” Willow said, turning her head away and feeling Faith’s fingers trail down her chin, her neck.

Faith paused, her finger tracing a light path on Willow’s collarbone. “Serious?”

Willow nodded, and then shrugged lightly, watching with a strange sort of regret as Faith’s hand slowly withdrew. “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s new.”

“What’s she like?” Faith asked, sliding her hand back across the seat until her thumb just brushed Willow’s thigh.

Willow looked at Faith, her eyes darting from dark hair and eyes to lips that curled in a ‘I’m only tough on the outside’ pout, and then looked quickly away.

“I knew it!” Faith laughed. “Willow’s got a bad girl jones! So she’s like me, huh?”

Willow squirmed. “Kind of like, Faith: The Home Version.”

“Well, why not try out the real thing,” Faith said, rising to her knees on the seat and crawling closer. “See if you even came close.”

A warm mouth ghosted over the curve of Willow’s neck and she shivered, her body tensing and the gas pedal suddenly coming closer to the floorboard than it ever had before. She groaned quietly, the word ‘no’ rising and almost being acknowledged, and then Faith’s hand was sliding beneath her jacket. The palm circled slowly and then the heel pressed right where Willow needed it. Faith’s hand opened slowly, closing around Willow’s breast and squeezing just to the point of too much and easing off, only to squeeze again.

“Faith…” Willow moaned. Faith murmured something wordless against Willow’s throat and then her lips were brushing lower, plucking at the fabric of Willow’s blouse. Willow pressed unthinkingly against the warm hand on her breast, her breath catching as she waited for Faith’s lips to join her hand. And suddenly Faith’s lips were there, closing around Willow’s nipple through her shirt, her bra, and the heat of them burning all the way through to the flesh.

Just as Willow surrendered to that sensation, Faith’s hand dropped suddenly, sliding hard and fast between Willow’s legs and cupping her hard, the thumb pressing deep.

“Driving!” Willow yelped. “Driving, driving, driving,” she chanted. Faith pulled back, her hand still turning restlessly against the warmth, and well, damp, Willow realized, as she bucked against Faith.

“Don’t fuck with the driver!” she said in answer to Faith’s lifted brow. Faith laughed and Willow blushed. “I mean,” she said, her voice small and quiet now, “I’m not a very good driver.”

“That’s okay,” Faith said, tossing her hair and throwing one leg over Willow’s lap, straddling her. “I kinda like to steer, myself.”

“Faith!” Willow cried out, the car swerving as she tried to steer around the dozen or so arms Faith had grown. “I can’t see! You’re going to make me kill us!”

Faith just sighed and ducked her head lower, nuzzling Willow’s breasts again. “You’re the smart one,” she said, “magic’s all physics and stuff, right? You’ll figure it out.”

“It’s actually more chemistry,” Willow began, and then gasped as she felt Faith’s hand press against her stomach and heard buttons popping open. Faith’s fingers dipped lower and then everything was liquid. The glide of the tires against the road satin smooth, the weight of her own hand as it left the steering wheel and closed around Faith’s breast, and the slipslide of those fingers stroking to the rhythm of the mouth that never left her skin.

“Oh, yeah,” Faith moaned, and Willow grinned, her fingers rough as they slid beneath Faith’s shirt. She jolted, startled, as Faith’s hand flew back, sightlessly hitting the radio volume and filling the car with a sound that covered their gasping breaths.

“Yeah,” Faith said again. “Don’t tell me you never got off to this one.” She twisted her hips, grinding against her hand and pressing it harder into Willow. She leaned down again, her lips wet as they slid against Willow’s ear as she sang along, “Where are all the good times? Who’s gonna show this stranger around?”

She laughed a little as Willow squirmed against her hand, “Oooo, I need a dirty woman. Ooo, I need a dirty girl…”

Willow blocked out the unfamiliar song and the sound of Faith’s teasing, driving with one hand like she’d done it all her life. Her other hand had much more necessary things to do than worrying about a dark and twisting highway. It traced the satin upper curve of Faith’s bra and then faltered a bit when it encountered the safety pins that were holding it together. Finding that both erotic and heart breaking at the same time, it slid beneath the silky cloth to the silkier skin beneath.

Willow arched her back, riding Faith’s clever fingers and using her own to learn the shape and curve of Faith’s body. Her palm settled over the thrust of a nipple, hard and insistent. She closed her hand around it, remembering first time discoveries of why bodies like these, softer and sweeter like her own, had felt so right.

And then she jolted upright, her chin glancing off the top of Faith’s head as she jerked both hands back to the steering wheel.

“Faith!”

A soft murmur answered her.

“Faith! Faith! Oh, my God,” Willow said, her foot slamming the brake, the tires screeching.

“There already?” Faith grinned up. “You _are_ a goer…”

“Oh, God, Faith, look!” Willow said, pushing Faith away from her and tugging at her seat belt.

Faith turned slightly, sliding away from Willow as she looked out the windshield. The headlights flared against the crumpled body of a girl lying in the center of the road.

Willow scrambled out from under Faith, slamming the door open and running toward the girl.

Faith sat up, easing back over to her own seat and grimacing as her hand smashed the remaining Sweet Tart into the upholstery. Lifting the hand to her lips, she licked the candy from it, tasting sugar and Willow, sweet and tart.

Sighing, she opened the door and stepped out. She looked back into softly purring car, sugar sprinkled over the bra she’d slipped skillfully off of Willow. “Hungry and horny,” she muttered as she closed the door and started toward Willow, “yep. Guess I’m back in Sunnydale.”

~End~

**Author's Note:**

> Lyrics from "More Than a Feeling" by Boston and "Young Lust" by Pink Floyd  
> Some dialogue references from BtVS "Who Are You?" and BtVS "Dirty Girls"


End file.
